Registering a trust with HMRC?

[Doug71]

We are setting up a trust and I am going to be a joint trustee. The financial advisor tells us it will need to be registered online with the HMRC but this is something he doesn't do. He says we can do it ourselves but it is quite complicated or we can use an agent to do it. I have spoken with an accountant we use and they quoted £350+vat to set it up (don't think they wanted to do it).

Does anyone have experience of doing this, is it as complicated as I'm led to believe?

I would rather pay someone else to do it as I'm pretty useless with such things but don't want to be spending money unnecessarily.

Any thoughts?

 

[artie]

HMRC offer help and assistance. It might be worth a ask.

Do you intend to put your worldly possessions into a trust so can own nothing and control everything?, or is there another reason?

 

[Phil Craddock]

We are setting up a trust and I am going to be a joint trustee. The financial advisor tells us it will need to be registered online with the HMRC but this is something he doesn't do. He says we can do it ourselves but it is quite complicated or we can use an agent to do it. I have spoken with an accountant we use and they quoted £350+vat to set it up (don't think they wanted to do it).

Does anyone have experience of doing this, is it as complicated as I'm lead to believe?

I would rather pay someone else to do it as I'm pretty useless with such things but don't want to be spending money unnecessarily.

Any thoughts?

Doug,

I'm a retired financial adviser and it certainly can be complicated. This HMRC guide may be of some help to you.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-a-trust-as-a-trustee

 

[Terry - Somerset]

On the basis there is a sound reason to set up the trust and that a substantial amount may be at risk if you get the legals and paperwork wrong, it may be worth paying someone to do it professionally.

That way you are covered (largely) by their professional insurance should there be problems in the future.

On this forum many would advise (for instance) getting a qualified sparky to sign off (and maybe install) electrics - not because we are generally incapable (or at least don't think we are) but in the event of a claim (fire, injury etc) the insurance company has no excuse not to pay.

 

[HOJ]

With regards registering the trust with HMRC, I was a joint trustee with my Sister being the lead, we had to register it, in the first instance as a trust then as a trust which will be liable to tax on the interest that was earn't on it, my sister did it all online, we now have have a UTR number issued by them and will just fill in an tax return, which we will do as part of our annual accounts, (my sis isn't the sharpest pencil in the box but she managed it OK)

With regards a Trust my advice is think very carefully about it, we have now closed ours, as it wasn't fit for purpose, relative to benefit, and in my my view was missold to my parents in the first place, and at great expense.

 

[mc281]

We are setting up a trust and I am going to be a joint trustee. The financial advisor tells us it will need to be registered online with the HMRC but this is something he doesn't do. He says we can do it ourselves but it is quite complicated or we can use an agent to do it. I have spoken with an accountant we use and they quoted £350+vat to set it up (don't think they wanted to do it).

Does anyone have experience of doing this, is it as complicated as I'm led to believe?

I would rather pay someone else to do it as I'm pretty useless with such things but don't want to be spending money unnecessarily.

Any thoughts?

From experience... Pay for the most expensive professional you can afford. The potentials for pitfalls you haven't as yet even thought about are legion and any one of them could cost 100s of times more than the cost of expert advice.

 

[Richard_C]

Paying £350 is probably trivial in the context of the size of the trust and the number of years it might run for. Context is all - just renewed my house insurance, seems like a big chunk of money but total loss of the house would be a huge life changing amount.

Trusts can be used for all kinds of things, a neighbour set up a trust for a sibling when they each inherited money. The sibling lives in sheltered accommodation and has mental health issues. That seems to be a good use of a trust - poa might have done it short term but a trust lives on if the neighbour dies.

It needs care though. A friend ended up with a £100 penalty from HMRC for a late tax return on a family trust that had no income and no tax to pay. A lot of the 'magic' trusts set up 20 years ago to avoid death duties turned out to be expensive and far from perfect, tax rules have evolved.

If avoiding IHT is your main purpose, there is speculation that the Chancellor will mess with the rules on Wednesday so I would "make haste slowly" and read the HM Treasury website late Weds afternoon.

The full statement, or budget depending on time of year, is published a soon as the Chancellor finishes in the House. It includes everything, Osborne was notorious for devil in the detail stuff that he didn't announce but others tend to leave out tedious and/or unpopular stuff.

If the sole purpose of a trust is to avoid tax or avoid care fees then you can't really grumble about poorly funded public services.

 

[Doug71]

Thank you for all the advice.

I don't stand to gain anything from the trust and it is not any kind of tax avoidance, it's actually a similar case to what @Richard_C mentions above.

I am not talking about anything to do with setting up the trust, the financial advisor is sorting all of this, it's just the actual registering of it with the HMRC.

I think we will end up paying an accountant to do it, any costs involved will come out of the trust, I was just asking as we don't want to use the money if we don't need to.

 

[HOJ]

I was just asking as we don't want to use the money if we don't need to.

We were offered the option to pay an accountant to do it for ours, solicitor guided us to do it ourselves, at no cost.

 

[TRITON]

Send your query to the conservative party HQ saying you dont want to pay tax under any circumstances and even get some sort of taxpayer funded grant of unlimited donation.

Im sure those are the best people to ask, especially when it comes to tax avoidance.